Mark Zuckerberg aims to play a significant role in the development of superintelligent AI, willing to invest billions to recover from setbacks and defections that have left Meta behind. Competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI continue to advance, as highlighted by Sam Altman’s blog post suggesting the ‘gentle singularity’ is already underway. To catch up, Zuckerberg plans to hire or acqui-hire top AI talent, including recruiting a team of 50 researchers for a new effort focused on advanced AI. Meta is reportedly considering a $15 billion investment in Scale AI to bring in CEO Alexandr Wang and other leaders. Scale AI would likely continue its current work without Wang and some top talent. Zuckerberg has also made substantial offers to individual researchers, ranging from seven to nine figures. Meta hopes to attract leading AI researchers by showcasing its resources and ongoing business. However, Meta has faced challenges with performance in its latest large models and seen some top researchers leave, including AI research head Joelle Pineau. The trend of tech giants acquiring parts of promising AI startups continues, as seen with Microsoft and Google’s deals. Meanwhile, the race toward superintelligence accelerates, fueled by massive investments in computing power and data centers. — new from Axios
